Payment cards such as credit or debit cards are ubiquitous. For decades, such cards have included a magnetic stripe on which the relevant account number is stored. To consummate a purchase transaction with such a card, the card is swiped through a magnetic stripe reader that is part of a point of sale (POS) terminal. The reader reads the account number from the magnetic stripe. The account number is then used to route a transaction authorization request that is initiated by the POS terminal.
In pursuit of still greater convenience and more rapid transactions at POS terminals, payment cards have more recently been developed that allow the account number to be automatically read from the card by radio frequency communication between the card and a so-called “proximity reader” which may be incorporated with the POS terminal. In such cards, often referred to as “proximity payment cards” or “contactless payment cards”, a radio frequency identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC, often referred to as a “chip”) is embedded in the card body. A suitable antenna is also embedded in the card body and is connected to the RFID chip to allow the chip to receive and transmit data by RF communication via the antenna. In typical arrangements, the RFID chip is powered from an interrogation signal that is transmitted by the proximity reader and received by the card antenna.
MasterCard International Incorporated, the assignee hereof, has established a widely-used standard, known as “PayPass”, for interoperability of contactless payment cards and proximity readers. It has also been proposed to use wireless exchanges of information via NFC (Near Field Communication) for payment applications.
In order for the contactless payment cards to be read at the point of sale, suitable contactless reader devices (referred to above as “proximity readers”) are provided as peripheral devices for the electronic cash registers (ECRs) or other types of terminals that serve as point of sale (POS) terminals.
It has also been proposed to incorporate the functionality of contactless payment cards into mobile telephones, so that users may present payment-enabled mobile telephones for reading by contactless readers as an alternative to presenting contactless payment cards.
The exterior appearance or design of most, if not all, standard contactless readers tends toward the basic, and typically takes the form of a black plastic box, with perhaps a minimal amount of (often unattractive) styling or ornamentation. This presents a disadvantage for some retailers, especially for those who invest significantly in the aesthetic design and attractive appearance of their stores. Indeed, for some retailers, store design is an integral part of their brand strategy. For such retailers it is difficult to reconcile the somewhat unattractive appearance of the typical contactless reader with their store design objectives, particularly given the need to place contactless readers in prominent locations at checkout counters where the readers can be easily accessed by customers who wish to present their contactless payment cards.